Steve Pearson Celebrating Fourth Decade of Coaching Youth Hockey

Pucks are dropping, skates are being sharpened and sticks are slapping at shots.

It’s hockey season and as he has for 30 years, Steve Pearson will be behind the bench for another season of coaching boy’s hockey.

Recently recognized by the Edina Hockey Association for his many years of contributing to youth hockey in the community, Pearson reflects that he is a life-time participant in the sport whether as a player or as a coach.

“I grew up in the White Oaks section of Edina right off 47th and France Avenue and was active in hockey, football and baseball from the time I was little,” Pearson said.

A graduate of and the University of Minnesota, he has also enjoyed a successful business career.

“My family founded and operated Pearson Candy Company and after college and a stint in the army, I went to work for my dad until he sold the company in the early 1970s.”

Following the sale, Pearson went into the cattle business, then owned a candy and tobacco distributing company and was a food broker. He has been a division national sales manager for Bongards Creamery since 2007, dealing primarily in processed cheese products.

Pearson began coaching squirts (8 and 9-year-old boys) in the early 1980s and in the process also coached his two sons, Lance and Trent.

“In recent years, I have coached the Junior Gold B levels boys,” Pearson added. “Presently, I am coaching kids who are 16 to 18 years old.”

These are players who aren’t talented enough to make the local high school varsity team, but still love the game.

“We have qualified for eight of the last 10 state tournaments, with our best finish being a second place,” Pearson recounted.

Pearson, who lives with his wife in the Indian Hills section of Edina, has no plans to retire from coaching.

There are weeks when hockey requires six days of commitment with practices and games. One of his former players, Mikey Spencer—now a college student—serves as his assistant coach.

“My health is good and I still enjoy it as much as ever," Pearson said. "I do a lot of traveling for my job, so I have to manage my schedule pretty well, but so far it has worked out very nicely.”

Pearson doesn’t seem to lack for things to keep him occupied. The Sunday morning he met with Patch he was also planning to attend that afternoon’s Vikings game against the Green Bay Packers. Later that same week, he had plans to head to North Dakota for a waterfowl hunting trip.

“I like to stay busy,” he aptly put it.